Summer drought in south and west Wales reveals new archaeological sites

There were more archaeological surprises this year for the Royal Commission’s aerial archaeologist, as  widespread hot weather in June and July parched grasslands and showed ‘cropmarks’ in ripening fields of wheat. 



Figure 1: Right place, right time. Known cropmark of an Iron Age defended enclosure (upper centre) north of Cardigan, photographed from the air as it is harvested. In an hour or two the site will be cropped, and will disappear until the next dry summer (Crown Copyright RCAHMW, 23 July 2014).

Dr Toby Driver explained:  ‘Despite the hot weather, frequent rain showers in many parts of Wales meant that cropmarks and parchmarks did not develop everywhere. Only in the south and west, across Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire and Glamorgan did the persistent drought reveal scores of prehistoric and Roman sites. Parchmarks of the Roman road running west of Carmarthen, as far as Wiston in Pembrokeshire, were seen for the first time since 1994 showing just how dry it got in the south-west.’

Dr Driver continued. ‘At the Royal Commission we have to be responsive to changing weather and crop conditions each summer. As the photo of the enclosure north of Cardigan shows, an hour either side of a flight can make the difference between obtaining a permanent record of a cropmark, or missing it completely.’

Figure 2: The Roman road west of Carmarthen, showing as a parched line approaching Whitland for the first time since 1994 (Crown Copyright RCAHMW, 30 July 2014).

Pembrokeshire held the most surprises, which was astonishing given the number of discoveries made across the county in the 2013 summer drought . As the dry summer of 2014 wore on, this coastal landscape yielded yet more unrecorded prehistoric sites. Close by the Rhoscrowther oil refinery in south Pembrokeshire a splendid concentric prehistoric defended enclosure was discovered in a field of ripening wheat. New defended enclosures of Iron Age or Romano-British type and plough-levelled Bronze Age barrows were recorded near Dale, near Broadhaven, and along the north coast near Carreg Sampson chambered tomb, Trefin.

Figure 3: The ghostly outline of a new Iron Age concentric enclosure near Rhoscrowther, south Pembrokeshire (AP_2014_3228, Crown Copyright RCAHMW, 22 July 2014)

AdFigure 4: Spectacular colours accompanied further discoveries of enclosures and hillforts close to Dale in south Pembrokeshire (AP_2014_3294, Crown Copyright RCAHMW, 22 July 2014).

A number of new sites were also discovered in south Wales, and included an unexpected prehistoric enclosure on a rocky headland at Oxwich on Gower, just south-east of the famous Oxwich Castle.



Figure 5. General view of Oxwich Castle, Gower, with cropmarks of the new defended enclosure in the right foreground (Crown Copyright RCAHMW, 23 July 2014).

Work back in the office to catalogue and record these discoveries will continue at the Royal Commission well into the winter months.

See our online gallery of aerial photographs for further images from our collections.

                                                                                                                             Toby Drive

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New information on the ‘Silian 3’ stone!

Professor David Austin, of the University of Wales TSD, Lampeter, chats to local people about the probable origins and evolution of the church site

On Friday 7 June news was received from Siân Iles, of the National Museum of Wales, to whom an enquiry had been submitted regarding the provenance of the cast and photograph of ‘Silian 3’. Both were noted by Professor Edwards in A Corpus of Early Medieval Inscribed Stones and Stone Sculpture in Wales.  Siân confirmed that the museum has the cast in its collection, and stated that it is likely to have been made by W. Clarke of Llandaff, prior to World War I. From 1894 the Cardiff Museum and Art Gallery (later the National Museum of Wales) undertook a programme of commissioning plaster casts of pre-Norman stones in Wales, in order to create a national reference collection. The programme was brought to an end by the outbreak of war in 1914.

A photograph of the ‘Silian 3’ cast is referred to as such in the National Museum’s catalogue. Also in the picture are the casts of two stones from Cynwyl Gaeo, which are known to have been made by W. Clarke in 1914. It can therefore be inferred that the ‘Silian 3’ cast probably also dates from that time, and ended up in the stream sometime afterwards. It seems that no one currently living in the village knew of its existence until now.

The ‘Silian 3’ stone is one of three medieval stones belonging to the church site. It will be permanently housed at St Sulien’s Church, whose parishioners intend to apply for funding to display ‘Silian 3’ and ‘Silian 2’, both of which are thought to date to the ninth-tenth century. ‘Silian 1’, whose inscription dates to the fifth-sixth century, is built into the church’s external south wall. There is considerable local and archaeological interest in the origins and evolution of the early church site at Silian. All three stones add to the narrative of the site, and local people now hope to disseminate this narrative using leaflets or an information plaque.


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Surveying Pont Ceunant Generating Station

Suveying Pont Ceunant Generating Station near Aberystwyth in North Ceredigion NPRN 407230.

 Over the last few days, Royal Commission archaeologists Louise Barker and Abby Hunt have been surveying the remains of the Pont Ceunant Generating Station, near Aberystwyth in North Ceredigion (NPRN 407230). This power station was one of the first to be built in Wales, and was commissioned in 1899 by Belgium firm  La Société Anonyme la Métallurgique of Liege to supply constant power to Frongoch mine (c1km to the east), one of the largest and most productive mines in the area, and one that that had been newly equipped with electrically driven plant.  A complex system of lakes and leats supplied water to the power station which housed a Pelton wheel that drove a 2,300 volt AEG alternator. A 360 horsepower Willans and Robinson six-cylinder steam engine and a Babcock and Wilcox boiler were also installed to power the alternator during times of drought and frost.

The cathedral-like shell of the power house is all that survives of this once state-of-the-art ornate building.  It was designed and built by a young Italian engineer Bernardino Nogaro (who later in life became the head of the Vatican Bank) at a cost of £11,400.  Unfortunately soon after construction, Frongoch mine failed to run at profit and subsequently the power station fell into disuse just two years later, with the equipment sold at auction.

The roofless shell of the Generating Station in 2012

 The survey was carried out as part of the Royal Commissions Metal Links Project as well as falling within our Heritage at Risk recording work and strategy.

The power station is located at SN7063 374320 adjacent to the road between Abermagwr and Pontrhydygroes, some 8 miles south-east of Aberystwyth.  There is an information panel at the site, and further information on the valuable work carried out here by the Welsh Mines Preservation Trust  can be found here.

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